editorial" "
The crisis of democracy in Europe has been translated into a vote that has rewarded the extremists. This crisis must be taken seriously because it’s not without precedents From one election to another, from one country to another, what was merely an hypothesis for a long period of time has now been confirmed: democracy in Europe, for so long a model, inspiration and hope for imprisoned peoples, is experiencing a worrying crisis. It’s a crisis of fatigue, of decadence, caused by an irrational fear in the future on the part of affluent and prosperous peoples, who are in good economic health but who have lost the sense of community. And it’s a crisis that is immediately translated into a vote that is increasingly becoming an expression of protest, a vote that favours forms of extremism. This crisis must be taken seriously because it’s not without precedents: even though the historical conditions are radically different, the crisis of the 1920s remains lodged in the memory, to remind us how precious and yet how fragile an asset is democracy: no nation, even one of great democratic tradition, is safe from the temptation of deviance. What are the symptoms of the crisis? It is manifested through various signs. Without wishing to list them completely, we may note, in opposition to a political system aimed at being a collective structure with a community spirit, the exacerbation of individualism, with the multiplication of candidates, especially those of extremist and protest factions, in every election and the consequent dispersal of votes. Political sociologists have observed the irruption of consumerism into the ballot box and speak of electoral “zapping” whose result is the lack of any strong attachment to a political family. Jacques Maritain defined democracy as a “living together”: “Living together he wrote in the ‘ The Man and the State‘ (1953) means participating as men, and not as animals, i.e. by virtue of a free and fundamental acceptance, in certain common sufferings and common tasks”. This double sentiment of belonging seems today the aspect that is least shared by the inhabitants of Europe. The crisis is also exacerbated by the cultivation of private at the expense of public interests, and the consequent weakening of the attention that citizens pay to common problems, to political affairs, in the noble sense of the term, i.e. the public interest and the common good. This weakness reinforces individualism and fear, fear of the Other, fear of the State, fear of Europe, fear of the world, fear of everything. It favours the populist politicians who, instead of promoting great projects, exacerbate and glorify local questions, encourage instinct and fear rather than faith and serenity. The crisis is also fomented by the irresponsibility of the press, and particularly by television whose images emphasize almost systematically the negative things, ignore what is positive and so main a climate of fear and hatred, not to say anger. But democracy also suffers because its citizens, its electors are so little responsible and committed to public life, and because those they elect have gradually debased the profound sense of democratic commitment; they have too often turned politics into a trade and forgotten that it is, or ought to be, above all a service. Here opens the path that may lead to the renewal of democracy and to the re-establishment of democratic values: the return to a concept of politics, as it was called by Luigi Sturzo, as service to what implies a particular attention to the problems of the community. “The Republic has a need of virtues” said Montesquieu in the eighteenth century. This observation has been lost sight of. Our leaders have too often forgotten that political action has the duty to open roads, to trace prospects, to ensure that the nation as a whole may be re-united with itself. The question of the construction of Europe is from this point of view exemplary: we have got bogged down in technocratic regulations, probably necessary but to the detriment of the inspiring guidelines laid down by the founding fathers in the 1950s. Here resides the value of politics. Only thus can democracy overcome the crisis. “ Duc in altum” : the expression is also applicable to civil society as a whole.
